Summary
It can be frustrating to lose important files from a Windows computer, particularly when files have been deleted permanently, removed from the Recycle Bin or deleted using the Shift + Delete command. In such cases, specialized data recovery software can help users to scan their storage to find potentially recoverable files.
Softaken Windows Data Recovery is a software utility to recover deleted and lost files for Windows users. Supports FAT and NTFS file systems with Recycle Bin recovery, Shift + Delete recovery, deep scan, search and filter, duplicate-file handling and batch recovery. The software currently supports Windows 10 and later 64 bit editions.
In this review, we will discuss about its major features, advantages, limitations, performance considerations and complete recovery procedure.
What Is Data Recovery Software for Windows?
Windows data recovery software is designed to locate files that are no longer accessible by standard Windows file-management techniques.
When you delete a file , the OS may delete the reference to the file you see , but parts of the file data itself may remain on disk until overwritten by new data . Recovery software looks at the structure of the storage and attempts to find these leftover data traces.
Thus, recovery software can be useful for accidental delete, emptying the Recycle Bin folder, Shift + Delete, and some data-loss situations related to the file system.
But you can never be sure of the outcome. The longer a storage device is used after deletion , the more likely it is that new data will be written over the data that was deleted .
The application includes several features to make recovery of Windows files easier.
1. Recover Files from Recycle Bin
The software is able to scan the Windows Recycle Bin to find and recover deleted items. Official product information says that it can also preserve original available names and metadata during Recycle Bin recovery.
This can be useful when users deleted documents, images, videos or other files by mistake.
2. Recovery Shift + Delete
Files deleted with Shift + Delete don’t go through the normal Recycle Bin workflow. The application scans the relevant storage location and provides the recovery of these permanently deleted files.
3. Scanning Deep
Deep Scan is useful when a regular search may not be sufficient.
The software will also do a more in-depth search of deleted data, to find files that may no longer show up in the standard Windows interface.
A deep scan can take longer than a basic scan, especially on larger drives .
4. Support for FAT and NTFS
The software is compatible with NTFS and FAT file systems. This provides flexibility to Windows users to recover data from supported storage configurations.
5. Restore Different File Formats
The application supports recovery of common file categories such as:
Pictures
Audio files Videos Archives
This makes it suitable for a range of common everyday data loss situations.
6. Search and Filter Capabilities
A big recovery scan can give a lot of results. It can therefore take time to manually go through all detected files.
Advanced search and filtering options help users narrow down results and find specific files faster.
7. Recovery of Batch
Users can recover multiple items together rather than restoring files one by one.
This batch operation can be very useful when recovering large numbers of documents, photographs, videos or other files.
8. Working with Duplicate Files
Duplicate detection helps users deal with the results of duplicate recovery. In case of duplicate copies of the same file, the user can take care of the duplicates at the time of recovery instead of restoring.
9. Recovery Custom Destination
The user can select the destination of the recovered files, instead of a fixed one.
It is recommended that you save the recovered data to a different drive or location, if possible, to reduce the chance of overwriting other potentially recoverable data.
10. Simple user interface
The product page emphasizes a simple layout and a step-based recovery workflow. This can help to facilitate the application for users with limited technical knowledge.
How to Recover Deleted Files: Step by Step
The recovery workflow is pretty straightforward. Here is a complete process, step by step.
1. Install the software.
First, download and install the data recovery application on a compatible Windows computer.
The current specs are Windows 10 or higher, 64-bit, with 4 GB of RAM and 100 MB of free disk space. Also administrator privileges are required.
Note: If the deleted files were on a specific drive don’t unnecessarily use that drive before beginning the recovery.
Step 2: Start the Application
Start the installed recovery software.
The main interface leads you through the scanning and recovery process. The simple layout is designed to facilitate users in navigating the process of recovery without complex configuration.
Step 3: Choose the Drive
Choose the drive from where the deleted files were originally saved.
For example, if the document that was deleted was on the C: drive, select the source drive accordingly.
It is important to select the correct source as the application needs to scan the location where the potentially recoverable data is located.
Step 4: Begin Scanning
After selecting the desired drive, start the scanning process.
The application scans the selected storage location and tries to locate deleted files. The deep scan mechanism can do a more detailed search in difficult recovery situations.
The time to check depends on things such as the capacity of the drive, the storage conditions, the file-system structure, and the amount of data being examined.
Step 5: Review Scan Results
Review detected files after the scan is complete.
If a lot of results are shown, use the search and filter options to narrow the list.
If you just want photos, for example, you can focus on image related results and not look at each detected object by hand.
Step 6. Select Files to Recover
Select the files you want to restore.
You can select all files at once and recover them, instead of recovering each file individually if you have to recover more than one file.
Duplicate handling can also help reduce unnecessary copies at this stage.
Step 7: Choose a Destination
Select the destination location to store the recovered files.
If possible use a different drive than the source drive . This is an important recovery practice because writing recovered files back to the same storage device can risk overwriting other deleted data.
Step 8: Begin recovery
Choose the files and the destination, then start the recovery operation.
The application restores the selected files to the specified location. Batch processing can be handy if you are recovering multiple items simultaneously.
Performance Evaluation
The performance of data recovery depends on many factors, so it is difficult to judge the recovery software only by the scanning speed.
Storage capacity, file system condition, amount of deleted information, drive health and data overwriting can affect the results.
The application combines standard scan with deep scan, search and filter, duplicate management and batch recovery. These features are designed to make the recovery process easier, especially when users have to deal with a large amount of deleted files.
Deep scanning takes longer because it takes a more thorough scan of the storage device. So users should not necessarily equate a longer scan with bad performance.
The fact that the software is available to try out for free is also useful as users can preview potentially recoverable data and test the recovery workflow before buying the full version.
Advantages
- Supports Windows 10 64-bit and later.
- NTFS and FAT file system support
- Recovers Deleted Recycle Bin Data
- Supports Undo Shift + Delete
- Includes deep scanning.
- Supports images, audio, videos and archives
- It provides search and filter options
- Enables batch file recovery
- Has duplicate file handling
- Allows user to select where to recover to
- Provides a free trial
- Provides simple recovery workflow
Cons
Windows-focused vs. cross-platform recovery solution
System requirements: 64-bit Windows 10 or newer (at time of writing)
Deep scanning might take longer on bigger storage devices
Whether deleted data has been overwritten will determine the success of recovery
Physical damage to storage may require professional hardware-level recovery services
System Specifications
The current product specs state the following requirements:
- Explanation of Requirement
- Operating System Windows 10 and later
- Architecture 64 bit RAM Minimum 4 GB
- Free disk space 100 MB Processor Any Pentium Class Privileges Administrator Privileges Language English
The demands are not big so the software shouldn’t need a high-end computer just to do basic recovery operations.
Free Demo or Full Version
The product page contains a demo version and a full version.
The demo allows you to enjoy features like Recycle Bin Recovery, Shift + Delete Recovery, Deep Scan Technology and supports multiple formats. The full version adds lifetime availability and is currently on sale for $29 on the product page.
The trial approach can be useful for users who want to determine if their required files are detectable before committing to the full version.
Who is this recovery tool for?
This solution may be well suited for:
- Windows users who have lost files by accident
- Users who cleared the Recycle Bin
- Those who used Shift + Delete
- People recovered images, videos, audio or archives
- FAT or NTFS storage users
- Users who want to recover multiple files simultaneously
- Beginners interested in a simple recovery workflow
Software recovery is less suitable as a guarantyd solution for physically failing or severely damaged drives. In those cases, you might want to consider a professional data-recovery service.
Final Thoughts
This Windows data recovery solution offers a limited but useful set of features for typical file-loss scenarios. For Windows users who want to recover deleted files, there are multiple options such as Recycle Bin recovery, Shift + Delete recovery, deep scanning, FAT/NTFS support, search and filtering, duplicate management, and batch recovery.
The step by step workflow is another advantage for the beginners and the free trial lets you try it out to see if the files can be detected before purchasing.
FAQ’s
- Can it recover Shift + Deleted files?
Yes. The software specifically supports deleted files using the Shift + Delete command.
- Support for NTFS and FAT?
Yeah. Supports both the NTFS and FAT file systems.
- Can I recover files deleted from the Recycle Bin?
Yes, Recycle Bin recovery is one of the main functions, recovery including the available original names and meta data.
- Can I recover multiple files at once?
Yes. Batch recovery lets the user select and recover multiple files at once.
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